Christ Church East Sheen Summer Concert took place on July 8.

This was a very successful concert, consisting of an extremely attractive variety of musical items. Holding centre place was a delightful performance of Claud Debussy's Pour le Piano by Edmund Lee, vicar of Christ Church and former concert pianist.

The combined choirs of Christ Church and the Putney Choral Society conducted by Stephen Rhys appeared three times, opening the concert with Bach's Sanctus from his Mass in B Minor and closing it with his Dona Nobis from the same work. Charles Standing was their organ accompanist.

In the middle of the concert they sang Matyas Seiber's Yugo-Slav Folksongs, a demanding and intricate but splendid medley of moods and melodies. Alison Wilson was at the piano.

We welcomed once more the mezzo-soprano Ursula Speis, accompanied on the piano by Brian Youl, singing songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Erich Korngold and Kurt Weill and impressing us all with the beauty of her voice.

The Tower House School Swing Band, under Sam Gosden, brought smiles of pleasure to audience members of all ages with their vitality and rhythm as they played Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock. Sam then accompanied on the piano Benedict Iremonger, trumpeter, who played There is no Greater Love by Isham Jones and Marty Symes. Both items were much applauded.

In the second half of the concert, after we had all enjoyed a huge tea with strawberries and cream, Stephen Rhys himself skilfully played on the organ the rather difficult Variations on America (or Variations on our National Anthem!) composed over a hundred years ago by Charles Ives. This was followed by a large Local Recorder Group, prepared well by Melanie MacLaine performing Three Hungarian Folksongs by Seiber.

The musical ability of Emma Plant was amply demonstrated in her playing of the Fantaisie for Alto Saxophone by Jules Demersseman. She too was accompanied on the piano by Brian Youol. Emma's father Gordon Plant who had done so much to promote the musical provision for the concert, then led the Christ Church Orcehstra in his own impressive and enjoyable arrangement of Bela Bartok's Rumanian Dances.

Philip McGuiness